HYBE teamed up with Universal Music to create an international girl group, can Europe and the United States have their own BLACKPINK?

Author | Ding Qianwen Edit | Fan Zhihui

K-Pop is trying to build a whole new global girl group landscape. 

On the night of September 16, the first global girl group draft "The Debut: Dream Academy" jointly launched by HYBE, a head entertainment company of South Korea's K-Pop, and Geffen Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music, announced the results of the first round of voting.

Adela trainee from Slovakia and Hinari, a trainee from Japan, were eliminated in the first round. Notably, the trainees in the top six safe positions are all people of color, with South Korean trainee Nayoung ranking first with a total of more than 100,000 votes, Filipino trainee Sophia ranking second with more than 90,000 votes, Brazilian trainee Samara in third place with a margin of 100 votes, and Indian-American trainee Lara as the only U.S.-based trainee in the top six.

This ranking, voted by fans around the world, is also based on the task videos previously released by 20 trainees, including not only four-person covers, popular girl groups, and musicians' works, but also Solo links that show personal strength such as singing and dancing and rap as a reference standard.

According to Korean media reports, trainees who passed the first round of tasks have also come to the HYBE headquarters for a month of systematic training, experience the pure K-Pop trainee training system, and start the second round of mission preparation.

This groundbreaking "global" girl group is undoubtedly a new living water that has injected K-Pop into the global music scene and experimented with the European and American music scenes.

American girl group, made in Korea

Turn back the clock to 2021.

At that time, HYBE and Geffen opened the "The Debut: Dream Academy" global girl group audition in South Korea, the United States, Australia and other countries. In the end, a total of more than 120,000 people signed up, and 20 trainees who officially entered the finals only officially opened in September this year. The two parties also jointly established HYBE x Geffen (HxG) record company in the United States as the operator of the girl group.

This photogenic public standard with a competition rate of 6,000:1 is also the most common debut candidate selection mode in the Korean trainee system.

Under normal circumstances, if you want to embark on the road of K-Pop idol, you often have to go through three stages of interview preliminary selection, intensive training, and competition selection.

After passing the audition, DM and other methods, they will be accepted as "education students", and during this period, the company will also observe the sustainable development of trainees by teaching singing and dancing, as an assessment standard to judge whether they can become trainees; At the trainee stage, in addition to singing and dancing, language, acting, photogenic management, etc. also become learning courses, and use this as a future candidate for a debut group for directional training. According to official information, the candidate trainees received group training in the United States for about a year.

At the same time, some agencies will also prepare reality TV shows for the debut group, which will be released to the mass market in the form of live broadcasts and installment competitions as an initial test to judge the degree of acceptance of this group of idols. Of course, in addition to the public voting, the debut of trainees is also responsible for guidance and selection by the mentor group.

The form of selecting trainees to debut through reality shows is also the most common operation of K-Pop, which is equivalent to putting trainees on the mass market for early "acceptance", such as the 101 series draft opened by "Produce101", and the internal draft that produces popular combinations such as TWICE and ENHYPEN.

In a certain sense, in the current European and American markets, this K-Pop A&R is a set of idol training operation system with a large number of successful cases as a reference, which can be self-consistent and virtuous.

Based on this, it is not difficult to understand why HYBE chairman Fang Shiyi and Geffen Records chairman and CEO John Janick call it "K-Pop methodology", and "The Debut: Dream Academ" is also a test of the international combination based on this.

Based on this model, Geffen relies more on its Interscope Geffen A&M to provide content in music production, global marketing and distribution operations, which is what Geffen excels.

As early as 2022, Interscope Geffen A&M partnered with YG Entertainment to successfully help BLACKPINK appear on the Billboard 200, and successfully held stadium-level concerts in the United States with 36 billion streaming media in the United States. This is also the "local advantage" that HYBE lacks in overseas markets, and in the long run, it is also complementary to the advantages of the two.

The foundation of this global girl group is also the "cultural diversity" in the context of cooperation between the United States and South Korean entertainment giants. HYBE and Geffen also point out that "diversity" is also the unique highlight of this girl group, and that different cultural backgrounds and experiences can also have an impact on music.

Humberto Leon, who was the creative director of KENZO and the creative director of the girl group's project, mentioned that his experience in the MV of the interracial youth band The Linda Lindas single "Growth" also indirectly contributed to his participation in the operation of the girl group.

In his opinion, this project is a very new attempt, "I try to show the encounter between East and West here, and when I interview the girls, they talk a lot about their culture, traditions, and the environment. They're really thinking about where the world is going, what they have to learn, and it's a pleasure to incorporate that into their clothes and hairstyles. "Visible to the naked eye, the Indian trainee's forehead "tika" (eyebrow center) and nose ring are retained on the makeup.

On the other hand, this girl group reality show project is also settled in HYBE's fan social platform Weverse, whether it is the daily life of the contestants or fan voting, it is carried out on this platform. This is also a natural support based on the number of fans gathered by Weverse itself.

In addition, social media such as TikTok, INS, and YouTube have also carried out synchronous operations, developing potential fans through the full matrix model and forming a close connection with fans, which also refers to HYBE's successful experience in social marketing on idols such as BTS and ENHYPEN.

In addition, Universal Music's international department also provides simultaneous dissemination on social platforms around the world, such as on Chinese mainland's Weibo, WeChat and other platforms, all of which are created by it; Netflix also took over the documentary production of all the processes of the girl group's audition, training and birth, and will be released in 2024.

It is worth mentioning that this "K-Pop methodology" has been quietly carried out in the European and American markets.

Almost at the same time, the American girl group "A2K" cooperated by JYP Entertainment and Universal Music's Republic Records in North America has entered the preliminary finale, and a total of ten trainees have received alternate places for debut and have come to JYP Korea headquarters for training. SM Entertainment, on the other hand, has taken a different approach, cooperating with RCA Records, which owns famous singers such as Doja Cat and SZA under Sony Music, to jointly operate its newcomer boy group RIIZE, which is also a rare example of K-Pop group signing with American record companies before their official debut.

It can be said that after BTS and BLACKPINK, K-Pop's system star-making planning capabilities are trying to integrate with the European and American markets, which may also bring a lot of globalization to the music industry in the future.

Why build a European and American version of BLACKPINK?

Back to the present, the key to K-Pop is to rely on brokerage companies to launch idol products in the form of group projects, from the meaning of the name, the selection and cultivation of members, the construction of world view, social media marketing, etc., which is also the European and American market lacks a mature commercialized idol trainee system.

Especially in the US market in recent years, local boy groups and girl groups are in a vacant state, and it is difficult to appear phenomenal idols such as One Direction, Fifth Harmony, Little Mix, etc. that attack the young group, and this market environment has also become an opportunity for K-Pop idols facing globalization.

Through songs, makeup, and social media such as YouTube and Twitter that reflect the attitudes of young people, BTS and BLACKPINK have also harvested a large number of fans in Europe and the United States and have been on many charts and even set a number of records.

The Guardian mentioned that the songs of these K-Pop idols bring young people a sense of intimacy without barriers and attract a large number of core fans. This also brings a new and alternative idea to European and American record companies, that is, borrowing K-Pop, which integrates fashion, catchy melodies, viral dance, stage with perfect audiovisual effects, social media and other content to create idol cultivation methods, and replicate them into localized idol groups.

Previously, British Front Records was the first to invest in it. In order to combat the "invasion" of K-Pop, the company launched Europe's first K-Pop style British girl group Kaachi in 2020, whose makeup, songs, and MVs are completely modeled on the taste of K-Pop's popularity.

But it is obvious that in the non-trainee training mode that lacks expression management, group dance is unfamiliar, and has a weak sense of teamwork, it is still difficult for semi-finished products to reach the level of training with a trainee system, and Kaachi's performance in the MV is also pointed out to be "extremely unnatural", quite "drawing tigers according to cats", and this group's debut was indeed unsuccessful.

But this does not mean that there is no other way in the European and American markets. As the world's broadest music market, its own resource advantages are also lacking in the K-Pop market.

As mentioned above, Geffen, as the hero who led BLACKPINK to expand its territory in the US market, also has the operational experience of traditional record companies, such as international resource integration and professional marketing strategies. In contrast, A&R in the European and American music markets focuses more on talent mining and music production. However, it is precisely for this reason that it also has a common core with the K-Pop training system, that is, "talent discovery".

In the final analysis, it is all about creating star artists who are accepted by the market, not easily eliminated, and have the possibility of sustainable operation, and can create market value and achieve commercial success. For example, the final 20 winners of the women's group project were decided by a panel of experts composed of Mitra Darab, President of HxG, Tom March, President of Interscope Geffen A&M, and Jay Ihn, Creative Director of HxG.

In addition, it is worth noting that in the current K-Pop song production system, there are more and more European and American producers and choreographers, A&R, etc., and the behind-the-scenes presence of K-Pop idols has been greatly improved, and a large number of popular K-Pop songs come from Song Camp composed of European and American musicians.

For example, Tian Jungkook's solo debut single "Seven", which set the record for the most Korean Solo songs and one Hot 100 this decade, was arranged by a national European and American team led by Grammy Award winner Andrew Watt, and popular singles such as IVE and aespa also have European and American musicians dominating positions. After undergoing the baptism of K-Pop idol song production, European and American local musicians are undoubtedly one of the ones who have mastered the recipe of hot songs.

Of course, international idol groups are also the only way for K-Pop to rush to open up the market. From the perspective of the industry, overseas consumers are undoubtedly the main users of K-Pop consumption, and the European and American markets are also in a benign state of reclamation.

Data show that in the first half of this year alone, K-Pop record exports hit a new high again, according to the statistics of the Korean Customs Department, the total export volume in the first half of the year exceeded 130 million US dollars, Japan, the United States, China as the three major export markets. However, even with higher export volumes, overall K-Pop growth rates are actually declining in mainstream music markets, including the United States.

Fang Shiyi said in a previous interview with CNN that "globally, K-Pop does not occupy much market", in his opinion, Latin music and African music are developing very rapidly, "so it is more urgent for us to increase exposure." He also stressed the necessity of innovation in the K-Pop industry, which focuses on globalization strategies, "The K-Pop industry has shown signs of slowing down, and globalization is a necessary condition to cope with the crisis."

This is not a false claim. In 2022, K-Pop ranked 53% less in the Billboard Hot 100 than in 2021, and with some BTS members joining the army, K-Pop is still essentially BTS larger than the whole.

Even this year, HYBE promoted SEVENTEEN AND TOMORROW X TOGETHER to fill the vacancy of the boy band, but the effect in the European and American markets is not significant, and the Billboard Hot 100 is still the only achievement achieved by BTS and BTS members. For example, BTS members Park Jimin and Jungkook set a record on the Billboard Hot 100 one after another, which is also the record for new Solo singers after PSY.

Today, as Fang describes K-Pop's goal of becoming "the territory of global pop culture", HYBE's cooperation with Geffen can be described as a new attempt to "save" K-Pop and further expand its influence.

epilogue

The launch of "The Debut: Dream Academ" is undoubtedly a deep bundle between K-Pop and mainstream music in the United States, and also marks the combination of advantages in different markets, and is the first strong combination in artist development and song production.

Of course, looking back at the changes of K-Pop, we can also find that Japanese pop culture and American pop culture have a profound impact on it, and "imitation" and the acumen to catch up with trends have always been K-Pop's strengths.

For South Korea, which is deeply influenced by its colonial history and culture, K-Pop's goal of globalization today is also expanding through integration. Therefore, the strategy of creating international girl groups with trainees across races and nationalities and joining forces with overseas entertainment companies is also the "denationalization" atmosphere in the context of cultural diversity that K-Pop is happy to see, that is, the ultimate result is a race-independent, diverse and mobile idol group that is above all cultures.

To put it bluntly, it is to replace idols with sensitive cultural symbols in the international state of denationalization, so as to achieve the true blossoming of globalization.

As John Janick said, HYBE and Geffen's girl group project is a pioneering attempt. However, from another point of view, when overseas entertainment companies hope to test whether trainees are qualified to debut and are welcomed by the market with reality talent shows and global audience voting, there is still a question mark to be put on whether the superiority of the K-Pop methodology will not be satisfied.

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